Are you a prideful person? Are you committing spiritual idolatry? Are you what St. James calls an adulterer? Pride will keep you from God's grace and He gives it freely. Pride is a disordered view of yourself and distorts our sense of importance. It causes us to place ourselves ahead of other people. It causes us to question why others have more worldly things than we do. We want things so much that we are willing to put those created things before the Creator or even in place of the Creator. Matthew 6:24 tells us that a divided loyalty cannot last. But many of us are very content with our friendship with the world. We are very focused on believing that created things are very important if we are to be perceived by others as important. All of this angst creates an inner struggle and we know what happens when pressure builds. It has to escape and frequently that inner angst explodes on other people. We become angry, envious and greedy. We covet what our friends have and we want it no matter what the cost. We must be happy and free to pursue our lavish lifestyle even if that means killing our children to get there. The good news is that God is waiting to help us out of this disordered existence. We need to develop our faith life and pray. We must allow our prayers to come from our hearts and realize that sometimes the answer will be no. Doesn't God know best what we need? He knows everything about us including our future. Sometimes when the answer is no, we get angry. But if we look back at that situation calmly and in obedience, we realize that God did what was best for us. So I encourage you to pray for wisdom. Submit yourself to God and clothe yourself in humility. Remember who you are and who He is. Wash the world away, take deliberate action to change your life and God will exalt you. The exaltation that God offers is not fleeting like that of the world. Humility is the opposite of pride and brings us in closer union with God. I am humbly praying for wisdom during this Lent. I also urge you to continue to pray for the victims of the tsunami in Japan.